WINDHOEK – The top performers in the 2013 Deloitte “Best Company to Work For (BCTWF)” survey was announced at a breakfast function at a local hotel yesterday morning. It was the third time that the survey was conducted in Namibia and it was conducted under the banner of “Making Africa a better place to work.”
Yesterday’s proceedings reached the climax with the announcement of this year’s winners:
Medium Sized Company Category
• Winner and first time participant in the survey, Santam Namibia
• 2nd place, multi-year participant, MVA Fund • 3rd place, first time participant, AFROX
Large Sized Company Category
• Winner and multi-year participant, Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies
• 2nd place, Old Mutual
• 3rd place, Agra
The survey aims to identify and celebrate the best companies to work for across the southern African region as rated by their most important stakeholder group, namely, their employees. “The results of the survey in Namibia this year and over the past two years indicate that the participating Namibian companies go the extra mile to understand their employees and to provide an employment experience that is on par or even better than the employment experience provided by companies in the region,” said Ramsay McDonald, partner at Deloitte and head of the Best Company to Work For survey in Namibia. The survey is the pre-eminent survey of its kind in Namibia and is quickly developing to be the pre-eminent survey of its kind in Africa. The survey, launched in South Africa in 2001, was extended to Namibia in 2011 and has attracted great interest from companies that want to ascertain how their employees view their performance on a variety of criteria. This year the survey was conducted in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Kenya.
Providing some background to the 2013 survey, Ramsay Mc Donald noted that this year’s participation included four new companies, representing the biggest increase in new participants since the survey’s inception in Namibia. In total 12 local companies participated in the 2013 survey, which is two more than last year’s survey. Deloitte recognised Agra, AFROX (first time participant), MTC, MVA Fund, NamPower, Ohlthaver & List Group, Old Mutual and Santam for achieving an average score of greater than or equal to the Deloitte benchmark for the standard of excellence. This benchmark score is an average overall score across the ten dimensions surveyed of more than 3.7. Achieving this score means these company employees are mostly positive about all ten dimensions and 44 questions surveyed. Twelve years of survey data was used to determine this Deloitte standard of excellence score. The 2013 results surpassed those of last year with the average score achieved reaching 4.0.
“This year’s results are excellent but work still needs to be done in closing the gap between employees and employers in understanding what people value,” said Hein Nienaber, Associate Director Human Capital. The Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies, was a participant in the survey since 2008 and the top performer in the southern Africa region in 2012 in the large size category. Next on the calendar is the annual conference at which the overall results of the Namibian 2013 survey and key trends, challenges and opportunities will be presented. The conference, to be held on November 20, 2013 and will be open to participants, as well as the greater Namibian employment community.
By Staff Reporter